Many members and friends of our work have asked, “what’s happening with PAPA?” The answer in the last year might not have been clear, but it is today.

Since the group was formed in 2001, PAPA has grown and risen to a full fledged organization with a healthy membership and a calendar of events ranging from meetings to exclusive news opportunities and even some educational round tables in-between social occasions.

During late 2015 and 2016 our group board entered a quiet phase with many of those who had been long standing members simply needing to take time for their own work and see PAPA change hands into new leadership.

I call it a quiet phase because that is what it was. Most of us who had been at the core of running PAPA were not able to put in the time and focus for that period to keep the organization at full steam.

In this time our Board became really more of a Steering Committee or Board Of Advisers who have met regularly to keep things moving forward until such time as we could assemble a group of people who had the energy and focus to get this organization at full steam again.

This is where we are in 2017. I have stepped into a leadership role along with Tyson Hugie. I am more or less operating as a General Secretary with Tyson Hugie operating as our Membership Chair and Treasurer.

We’re sharing the road ahead with our esteemed Board Of Advisers; Cathy Droz, Larry Edsall, Nicole James, Sandra Munoz, and Brenda Priddy. Though official titles aren’t yet assigned to these fine people, each and every one of them is playing a vital role in PAPA going forward.

You may recognize many names as most have been on our Board for many years in various roles. There are also some new faces including Nicole James of ClassicCars.com and Sandra Munoz of Latinaology.com who will be handling our PR work and running our new social media channels you can see icons for on our site.

In the coming year we have a number of goals:

First, we are working to assure that PAPA has at least one event or meeting each month that has value to our members. A number of events are in the works for the immediate coming months and we intend to have a full year calendar of events – which means summer too.

Second, we’d like to reach out to all of our members and ask your help to grow PAPA strong by supporting us in membership renewals as well as attendance at our coming events. We also welcome members and manufacturers alike to work with us to promote events and gatherings that would be worthwhile to our members. That means if you have an idea, let us know.

Third, building on the first two goals we would like to be in a place this fall where we can once again hold official Board elections for the 2018 year. This goal is the crown to what we are working on this year to bring PAPA fully back from the quiet phase.

If you have any questions or would like to know how you can get involved, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

During our fabled Auction Week here in Phoenix, our friends at Allison Partners and Toyota invited working media out to a special evening program to demonstrate their Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) systems.

The event held at Wildhorse Motorsports Park started with a detailed presentation by Toyota sales training representatives to outline the various systems that come on all Toyota models starting for the 2017 model year.

Presenter Derek Huff who teaches Toyota dealer sales how to sell and demonstrate the products, explained to our members in detail how the various elements of TSS operate and which Toyota models come with each set of safety features.

TSS comes in two forms, TSS-C for compact and entry level models and TSS-P for larger and more upscale vehicles.

TSS-C includes an array of camera based passive and active safety features and driver assistance programs. There is a pre-collision functionality that uses a forward looking camera to detect the car moving up on vehicles ahead. It can first alert the driver then take action to brake if the driver doesn’t.

Also included is a lane departure alert that will give auditory and visual warnings to the driver if they are crossing over lane lines. TSS-C also includes automatic high-beam headlamps.

On more premium and larger class models Toyota now has standard TSS-P. It takes the feature set of TSS-C and adds a millimeter wave radar capability that enables a finer set of skills for its pre-collision system and automatic braking.

It can detect pedestrians and other objects above and beyond another vehicle and as such offers additional capability to help prevent accidents. TSS-P also has a more elaborate lane keeping function that adds steering assist that can also help nudge a driver back into the lane if they are crossing visible lines.

Added here is also dynamic radar cruise control which can maintain your car at a set speed and at a set distance to traffic ahead. As demonstrated on site at the event, this can enable the car to adjust speed based on vehicles in front of it at a set distance and even come to a complete stop, then continue on.

Toyota stressed that TSS is an enhancement to safety and not a substitute for driver awareness and interaction. They pointed out clearly that some road conditions including surfaces, weather and traffic may preclude the systems from being able to operate.

During the presentation phase there was a healthy question and answer session followed by in-car demonstrations of the pre-collision systems, the dynamic radar cruise control and the parking assistive programs available on Toyota models.

Special thanks to Allison Partners and Toyota Motor Sales USA for providing this window into the new safety systems and how sales representatives are trained to present them to customers.

The Arizona Biltmore Resort will again host the Arizona Concours d’Elegance where we have a number of opportunities to get an inside track on the the cars and the people who make it happen.

The Legends: Pioneer Women in Racing,” discussion on Saturday, January 14, is one of three panel discussions taking place on the eve of the Arizona Concours d’Elegance. Starting at 10 am will be the annual Phoenix Automotive Press Association (PAPA) preview of the collector car auctions happening that week, then the Legends panel at noon, followed at 2 pm by “Drive: The Passion Driving Race Team Owners,” also moderated by Lyn St. James with featured guest Bobby Rahal.

The fourth annual Arizona Concours d’Elegance, January 15, 2017, hosts more than 90 exceptional vintage automobiles competing for awards in 17 classes as well as coveted Best-of-Show. Besides Lincolns of the Classic Era, featured classes for 2017 honor the Cars of Ettore and Jean Bugatti, and Coachwork by Vignale.